Alan Wake pushed his chair away from the desk and stretched his tired muscles. He had been sitting at the typewriter for hours now, tapping away at the keys. His muscles were aching and his ass hurt, he just had to get up and walk around. He stood from his chair and headed out of the cabin, the world around him was empty and the sky was a dull grey color.

He didn't expect much else; after he and Thomas had found out that Alice was dead he had been stuck in some distorted reality. He was fine here, without Alice his life felt empty and besides, he hated people, what was the point of going back to a world full of people he hated without Alice there to be his life vest? Alan had told Thomas not to send him back; the man didn't argue with Alan and just left him in the dull, empty world.

Alan wasn't entirely alone however, there was one other person with him, someone he would rather not be with, but he guessed Thomas decided to play some sick joke on him. Mr. Scratch, Alan's doppelganger, Mr. Scratch honestly wasn't needed anymore, his one purpose was to go back to the surface of Bright Falls to meet up with his friends and wife…if she had been alive. Unfortunately, Mr. Scratch was there to stay; if Alan ever saw Thomas again he'd ring his neck.

Mr. Scratch didn't really do anything wrong, he rarely interacted with Alan unless he got bored and decided to mess with the writer. This consisted of Mr. Scratch poking Alan, stealing Alan's clothes, firing the revolver in the cabin (one bullet of which ended up only one inch from Alan's head), throwing things at him, whining, messing with Alan's manuscript, and flicking rubber bands at him. Alan had no idea where Mr. Scratch got the rubber hands, but he swore that when he found the stash of offending projectiles he would throw them into Cauldron Lake. Mr. Scratch seemed to like getting on Alan's nerves; with everything that had happened when Alan was in the 'real world' Alan had developed a horrid temper and Mr. Scratch knew exactly what buttons to press to make Alan's already short fuse that much shorter. God, he really hated Mr. Scratch and his creepy smile sometimes.

There was however one thing Alan noticed about Mr. Scratch which he actually kind of enjoyed, the clone didn't talk, EVER. He also had almost childish tendencies as well. Alan figured that maybe Thomas hadn't truly completed Mr. Scratch and when it was discovered that Alice was dead, Thomas just figured 'screw it' and didn't bother finishing up the finer details of the doppelganger. Alan really didn't mind though, Mr. Scratch was annoying enough; he didn't need the power of speech to annoy the writer any more than he already did.

The unmistakable sound of the clicking of keys penetrated Alan's ears then, tearing his attention away from the lake.

I'll kill him, Alan thought as he scrambled to his feet and ran into the cabin. When he arrived in the bedroom, slamming the door hard against the wall, nobody was in the room, but he did notice something had been added to the page he was working on.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

"Very funny," Alan said, ripping the page out of the typewriter and setting it aside. "Come out here, Mr. Scratch." No movement could be heard, but Alan knew that Mr. Scratch had to be close. He hadn't seen Mr. Scratch leave the cabin and the cabin wasn't big enough for Alan to have missed him while running up the stairs.

"I know you're in here, just make things easier on yourself and come out." Still no movement, Alan sighed irritably, "I promise you won't get in trouble." The bedroom door creaked as it was pushed away from the wall, revealing Mr. Scratch with a bloody nose. Mr. Scratch gently touched the blood and looked at his hand with a confused expression.

"Its blood," Alan said which caused Mr. Scratch to wrinkle his nose. "Maybe this will teach you not to mess with people's things." The clone just stuck his tongue out at Alan but withdrew it when blood ran over his tongue.

"Come on," Alan said and led Mr. Scratch to the bathroom. He sat Mr. Scratch on the edge of the tub and searched through the cupboards until he came across a clean rag. Alan turned back around with rag in hand; he tilted Mr. Scratch's head up and pressed the rag to his nose, applying slight pressure.

"I didn't even know you could bleed," Alan commented more to himself than to the doppelganger. Mr. Scratch just shrugged which Alan took as an 'I didn't know either.'

"Just keep your head back and continue applying pressure and the bleeding should stop soon," the writer said as he removed his hand from the rag and placed Mr. Scratch's hand where his just was. Mr. Scratch nodded and with a bit of difficulty, because he couldn't see in front of him for the time being, made his way out of the bathroom.

Alan picked his head up from the book he was reading when he heard footsteps coming close to the bedroom. Mr. Scratch soon emerged from the darkness of the hallway, his head still tilted with the rag pressed to his nose. Alan chuckled softly when Mr. Scratch bumped into the doorframe.

"You're fine, it stopped." Mr. Scratch looked pleased with this and made his way to leave the room.

"Don't bump into anything on your way out," Alan laughed. Mr. Scratch whipped his head around to glare at the writer, the look just made Alan's grin grow, that was until Mr. Scratch threw the bloody rag at him. Alan dodged the cloth and gave Mr. Scratch a dirty look.

"What the hell!" the writer yelled at his doppelganger. Mr. Scratch grinned as he turned away and walked out of the room.

Notes: 1.) The 'Empty World' is the Dark Place and yet at the same time isn't. If you've seen the early trailers for Alan Wake when it was still in development you'll notice the world is very empty. I borrowed that to make the 'Empty World' that Alan and Mr. Scratch are in. During the day it's the 'Empty World' while during the night it's the Dark Place.

2.) I know Mr. Scratch can talk (as shown in the American Nightmare trailer), but for the sake of this fanfiction, he does not and he's kind of mature but can also be childish.

Hopefully I didn't forget anything and I hope you all liked this chapter, I'll get the next one up as soon as possible. Have a nice day.

The author would like to thank you for your continued support. Your review has been posted.